Futuristic Enclosure Thingy Proposed for the BQE
It never hurts to dream. Manhattan-based architecture firm Studio for Civil Architecture just released its proposal for a visual and sound barrier between the BQE and Brooklyn Bridge Park. Regardless of what is ultimately built on the waterfront housing, restaurants, ball fields, passive recreation areas visitors to the open space and surrounding structures will be…
Rendering via Studio for Civil Architecture
It never hurts to dream. Manhattan-based architecture firm Studio for Civil Architecture just released its proposal for a visual and sound barrier between the BQE and Brooklyn Bridge Park. Regardless of what is ultimately built on the waterfront housing, restaurants, ball fields, passive recreation areas visitors to the open space and surrounding structures will be subject to relentless, unpleasant, potentially deafening noise at 85 decibels, the equivalent of standing next to an operating lawnmower,” says architect Donald Rattner, who designed the lightweight structure to encase the triple-cantilever of the roadway with Hage Engineering. Evidently this stretch of the BQE is scheduled to be repaired in 2018 and the designers want to throw their idea into the ring now. You can see more renderings and listen to the 85 decibels of traffic noise here. Dig it?
It does look pretty cool, but for accuracy, the rendering should have wall to wall traffic, much of it trucks, drawn in, leaving no space for another vehicle. That would also change the decibels, as traffic crawling along at the speed of an arthritic snail sounds very different than traffic zipping along like you were on Route 17 near Binghamton.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3xGtjhZ_Yg
I love all these posts a lot. The 2108 projected completion date of the BBP is pretty funny as is Rob’s comment that he doesn’t want to live in no stinkin’ European city.
This mutant tennis bubble over the BQE is hillarious and I must say it is bringing out the best writing wit in many of us.
Can you just imagine? The DOT can’t fix the potholes on the highway but someone expects them to deal with this? Actually the whole cantilever is kind of shaky. I can foresee a scenario where the highway is turned into a park ala the highline, with community vegetable gardens, while car and truck traffic will be diverted onto a new surface highway along the waterfront. Problem solved!
> “i like my noise and stink and grit the way it is thank you.”
And yet you left Jersey.
It would be so cool. And practical- now that’s a rare combination in any case. The BQE is one of the worst parking lots…er…roadways in the city.
are you forced to live next to the bqe? no. there’s nothing worse than people who moan and complain about urban life and say oh if it was only like europe. blah blah blah. go to europe then! some of us like the noise, and i can tell you straight out that it was 10x noisier on my block when i lived in harlem than it is on the bqe. if the person with the noise reader (lol) wants to go check it, do so. people please stop trying to turn nyc into a sleepy suburb.
*rob*
“i like my noise and stink and grit the way it is thank you.”
I bet you wouldn’t feel the same way if you had to live next to it. This would be an amazing project, however, given that this is New York, it will never happen. Sigh.
quote:
If this were some pleasant European city, or perhaps Japan, such barricades would probably already exist, improving the quality of life for everyone. Since this is New York, I sincerely doubt the project will come to fruition.
you do know some people don’t WANT nyc to become some lame-o copy of a european city, right?
i like my noise and stink and grit the way it is thank you.
*rob*
85 decibels is a conservative estimate for the noise level. I’d say it’s an almost constant 85-dB, with highs going into the high 90-dB range for sustained periods of time. If I had more time on my hands I’d go down there with my dB meter (yes, I have one) and get some real-time readings.
Noise Pollution is why I’ll walk dozens of blocks out of my way to avoid certain Brooklyn thoroughfares…